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WAR PAPER 76. 



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dOMMAl^DEI^y OF THE DI^TI^ICT OF COLUMBIA. 



WAR PAPERS. 



75 



Edwia nyCacraaslers Stanton, the (icreat 'War 
Secretary; 3{is "Place in [history. 

prepared by companion 
First Lieutenant 

THOMAS H. McKEE, 

U. S. Volunteers, 

AND 

READ AT THE STATED MEETING OF DECEMBER 2, 1908. 



L^-^^ 
J 

.SsM/4 



The Great War vSecrETary; His Place in History. 



I am to present to you in this paper, one of, if not the most 
remarkable man of our history. He was misunderstood in 
almost everything he did. He was abused by almost every- 
bod)' for doing what must be done. His motives were wrongly 
interpreted. He was mistrusted, maligned and hated for 
doing his duty. He is better understood now. 

It is impossible to estimate what he accomplished, as years 
must pass before his true biography can be written. 

His singularity brought to him severe and sometimes harsh 
criticism. 

In his associated work he is often compared with President 
Lincoln. The two men were unUke in everything in spirit 
and in temper, but in their devotion to the Union each gave 
supreme effort. 

Mr. Stanton thought quickly and acted upon his own judg- 
ment; few men have so enriched the world with their individ- 
uality. His Ufe work will live as long as our Hbcrties; it is 
stamped in the boldest type of the whole volume of our history; 
his mastery and intellectual force were infused into Cabinet, 
Congress, Army, and people. 

Mr. Stanton was in his forty-sixth year when he entered 
the Cabinet of President Buchanan, December 20, i860, as 
Attorney-General, where he served until March 3, 1861. 

He entered the Cabinet of President Lincoln as Secretary 
of War, January 15, 1862, where he continued to serve through- 
out President Lincoln's and a part of President Johnson's 



4 

term; retiring May 28. 1868, having served continuously for 
more than six years. 

Mr. Stanton was a man of great courage and of splendid 
physique. He possessed powers of endurance which enabled 
him to give the nation heroic service. 

Those of us who fought and marched through the terrible 
years of the Civil War are now beginning to learn or under- 
stand many of the mysterious things which caused us to grumble 
and complain. The forced marching and countermarching, 
the prolonged waiting, and the shameful defeats which followed 
our armies are now understood. 

The records of the War Department have laid bare the 
mysteries of manv of the great incidents of the war not then 
understood. The part in the great drama played by Mr. 
vStanton caused much disaffection and unreasonable criticism. 

The enduring homage of mankind is the most costly thing 
begotten of human effort. Martyrdom to duty is its price. 

The most potential force in any great war is mental rather 
than physical. Armies must be organized and equipped 
before battles can be successfully fought and won. 

By way of preface to this paper we shall see and measure 
this fearless man by what he accomplished rather than by 
what he did. There are in every crisis duties and things to 
be done, the doing of which must incur displeasure and bring 
upon the doer contempt and hatred. 

This answers the charges that Mr. vSlaulon made more 
enemies than any known public official, but hatred and cal- 
uiniiv often attest the highest virtue in right doing. He 
gave his service a sacrifice, not for profit. Not a rich man, 
he gave up the most lucrative law business of any attorney 
of his day to become the poorly paid servant of a tottering 
republic. 

The dav Mr. vStanton entered President Buchanan's Cabinet, 



December 20, i860, must be forever memorable. On this 
day vSouth Carolina recorded her verdict of treason and rebel- 
lion by the passage of an ordinance of secession; but it also 
marked the beginning of resistance to open conspiracv against 
the Government in the person of Edwin M. Stanton. 

For an indefinite period President Buchanan had been nego- 
tiating with the conspirators from South Carolina. On Decem- 
ber 9, i860, he signed an agreement with them permitting the 
State to withdraw from the Union without molestation. 

The progress made by the conspirators was remarkable. 
Forts, arsenals, custom houses, vessels and all kinds of prop- 
erty were taken possession of by them without protest either 
by the President, Cabinet, Congress or Court. 

On December 26, i860. Major Anderson evacuated Fort 
Moultry and occupied Fort Sumter. This movement mad- 
dened the rebels and alarmed the whole North. The press, 
speaking for the people who were loyal to the Union, demanded 
that Fort Sumter be immediately reinforced and provisioned. 
President Buchanan refused. This drove Lewis Cass, vSecretary 
of State, out of the Cabinet. At the time he tendered his 
resignation he said: "This is but the beginning of the end. 
The people of the south are mad; the people of the north 
are asleep; the President is pale with fear, for his official 
household is full of traitors and conspirators who control the 
Government." 

Attorney-General Black succeeded Cass as Secretarv of State, 
and Stanton succeeded Black as Attorney-General. 

On the first day in the Cabinet Stanton began his resistance 
of treason. He intercepted the shipment of one hundred and 
twenty-four heavy cannon, from the arsenal at Pittsburg, Pa., 
intended for rebel fortifications in Louisiana and Texas. 

This first act indicated the spirit of Mr. Stanton. The pre- 
cedents would have required this matter to have been referred 



to the vSecretary of War, but vStanton acted without awaiting for 
anybody and saved the guns. This was the first open act 
against the conspirators by any one high in authority. 

From this date the Cabinet chamber became the arena of 
incipient war. President Buchanan was insisting on treating 
with the leaders of secession. 

Attorney-General Stanton, in the presence of the Cabinet, 
was quick and prompt in denouncing the whole scheme as trea- 
son. He said to the President, ' 'These men from South Carolina 
claim to be ambassadors. It is preposterous; they cannot be 
ambassadors; they are law breakers, traitors. They should be 
arrested. Mr. President, you cannot negotiate with them, and 
yet I see by these very papers that you have been led into doing 
that very thing. With all respect, Mr. President, I must say 
that the Attorney-General, under his oath of office, dares not 
be cognizant of these proceedings." 

It is bevond the power of the keenest imagination to con- 
jecture what the result would have been had President 
Buchanan carried out his contract with the rebels. 

Attorney-General Stanton did that day what an army could 
not have accomplished. It was a notice to the Chief Executive 
to halt in his negotiations with the avowed enemies of the 
Government he was sworn to uphold. 

A further scene in the Cabinet chamber on December 29, i860, 
was made memorable by the part Attorney-General Stanton 
played. The national peril was imminent. The House of 
Representatives was considering articles of impeachment against 
President Buchanan. 

Secretarv Black, Secretary Holt, and Attorney-General 
Stanton notified the President that if he persisted in further 
negotiating with the rebels they would immediately resign. 
This brought the President to terms, but he tried to justify his 
course on the ground that his agreement made with the South 



Carolina conspirators was binding upon him as a gentleman. 
Mr. Stanton said to him, "You are not a gentleman; you are 
President of the United States, sworn to execute the laws made 
for the protection of the nation, its property, its people and its 
territory." 

This work of Mr. vStanton in the Cabinet of President Buch- 
anan brought him an inheritance of hatred and abuse such as 
was never before hurled at any man, but he stopped not at the 
complaints of rebels, or their sympathizing friends, or any 
one else. 

The uncompromising stand taken by Attorney-General 
Stanton caused Secretary Floyd, of Virginia, and vSecrctary 
Thompson, of Mississippi, to resign from the Cabinet. This led 
to a more hopeful outlook in the northern States. 

The great newspapers of the North made bold to declare that 
the entry of Mr. Stanton into the Cabinet had changed the 
national situation, as shown by the following. At this date the 
New York Times said : ' ' Attorney-General Stanton is the back- 
bone of the Administration. By enforcing the law, secessionists 
are beginning to leave the capital." 

Thurlow Weed, speaking of the new Attorney-General, said: 
"He is tremendous." Horace White in the New York Tribune 
remarked: "A marked change in the national policy is felt in 
the air — it is vStanton." 

These changed conditions prepared the way for many impor- 
tant events which were at hand — the holding of the national 
capital; the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln, President-elect, 
both essential to the life of the nation. 

The great peril was not yet fully realized. The so-called 
Confederate government had started on its voyage of war, 
marshalling armies, building navies, seizing Government forts 
and arsenals, plundering private possessions, and taking prop- 
ertv without due process of law, wherever found. 



In the midst of this crisis President Lincoln was inaugurated, 
and Edwin M. Stanton became a private citizen. 

Instead of preparing for the speedy prosecution of the war, 
the lawmakers and the lawbreakers were devoting the whole 
energy of the nation to saving the Constitution by some form 
of compromise. But there were a few men who believed the 
National Union should be first maintained, for, without it, the 
Constitution was a dead letter. 

The conspirators forced the war. The national arms failed 
as an offensive and defensive organization in the early period 
of the conflict. Inaction, mistakes, blundering, and plun- 
dering came verv near overthrowing the national authority. 
The necessity for changed conditions turned all thoughts 
to the fountain of military authority and power, the War 
Department. 

President Lincoln in his wisdom had discovered the cause 
of the failure, but at the same time beUeved he had found a 
remedy in a new war minister. The result was that Simon 
Cameron, Secretary of War, resigned, and on January 13, 1862, 
Edwin M. Stanton's name was sent to the Senate, and on the 
15th he became Secretary of War. 

In the early part of the war the mad rush and cry of "On to 
Richmond " uncovered the weak places in our army organization. 
The Confederate army had the advantage of five months of 
time in perfecting their organization. 

The seceding States were crowding their best men into camps 
of instruction as early as December, i860, while our first camps 
were estabUshed about May i, 1861. 

The War Department, or War Office, on March 4, 1861, was 
of little use, and certainly not suited to the conduct of a great 
war. Those who had administered the affairs of this great 
department for twelve vears had used the office for the purpose 
of overthrowing the Government rather than providing for its 



defense. vSecretaries Conrad, of Louisiana, Jeff Davis, of Mis- 
sissippi, and J. B. Floyd, of Virginia, were leaders in advocating 
secession and war. 

The following comparison will be of interest : 
"The War Department at the opening of the Spanish War 
in 1898," says Gen. Thomas M. Vincent, "found in vSeries 3, of 
the War Records, a precedent for everything they had to do. 
Nothing had to be invented, nothing tested — a' precedent for 
everything." 

vSecretary Cameron tried to conduct a war under these obsolete 
articles of war, but it was a losing struggle. There were no 
precedents suited to the new conditions of war. The issues 
now arising had never before been confronted by any war 
minister. What was needed was a man who could and would 
create precedents, a man who would act without authority 
if need be. 

The one man whom destiny had endowed for such a crisis 
was ready to undertake the awful task. 

When vSecretary Stanton entered the war office he trans- 
formed everything, but he first transformed himself. He steeled 
his soul for duty. He shut the door of affection, abandoned 
sympathy and forgot all kindness. He became conscious and 
courageous of one thing — "The National Union." All else he 
put out of his thoughts. 

Secretary Stanton's first day in the War Department gave 
promise of setting things in order. He began weeding out of 
the office the disloyal element. He put in motion an active 
movement to keep spies out of the capital. He caused the 
great crowds of officers and men who filled the resorts and 
streets of Washington to return to their camps. In the national 
capital, in State capitals, in camps and field, everywhere officers, 
soldiers and citizens all felt the touch of a new force. 

The greatest menace confronting the Government at this 



lO 

date was plundering of the Treasury — fraudulent contracts 
and crookedness in high places. Congress was busy investi- 
gating these alleged frauds but no one was punished. 

A greater peril was assuming threatening proportions; the 
Government was buying everything from Europe instead of 
producing it at home. This had drained the country of its gold 
and silver. Added to this peril was the greater injustice of 
Europe emptving her waste and refuse upon us with which to 
ecjuip, clothe and feed an army. 

vSecretary vStanton saw the whole situation at one look ; he 
made short work of it all. On January 29, 1862, thirteen days 
after he became Secretary, he issued the most important and 
potential order ever promulgated either in war or peace by any 
war minister of history. Sections i and 2 of the order tell their 
own story. 

1. "That no further contracts be made by this department 
or any bureau thereof for any article of foreign manufacture 
that can be produced in the United States." 

2. "All outstanding orders, agencies, authorities or licenses 
for the purchase of arms, clothing, or anything else in foreign 
countries, or of foreign manufacture, for this department, are 
revoked and annulled." 

vSection 4 of this order was the death knell of fraudulent 
contracts. 

When Mr. Stanton presented the proposed order to the 
Cabinet it was strongly opposed. President Lincoln said : 
"It would exasperate our friends over the water." Mr. vSeward 
said: "It would compUcate the foreign situation." Mr. Stan- 
ton's reply was: "It will have to be issued, or very soon there 
will be no situation to complicate." In the face of the Presi- 
dent's objection and the protest of the Cabinet vStanton issued 
the order. 

This incident must forever stand as a speaking witness of 



II 

vStanton's greatness. He stood alone against Cabinet, Con- 
gress and the world. In reputation he paid dearly for this 
defense of national honor. 

The spoilsmen, rebels at home and abroad, politicians, 
soldiers and people, all heaped upon him the letdoose wrath 
of hatred. They lashed him with the scourge of vituperation, 
and blackened his name by the brush of calumnA-. But 
vStanton stopped not to heed individual complaining, news- 
paper criticism, nor the remonstrances of generals. The 
whole machinerv of the War Department changed — quarter- 
master, commissarv, ordnance, medical and other bureaus 
were soon read^' for war. 

A new spirit came over the whole North, factories were 
springing up evervwhere, shops were opening for the manu- 
facture of the various needs of the Army. In a short time, 
by the wisdom of vStanton's order, the gold which had left us 
was coming back to sustain the national credit. 

Stanton verv earlv gave attention to army headquarters 
in the War Department where everything seemed to be open 
to the public, a matter of public notoriety. The following 
is from the Naticnial Infclliaoiccr of 1861 : 

"In the rooms of the army headquarters there were free 
telegraph privileges. Everybody used the privileges. There 
were no secrets. It w'as common to see fifty miscellaneous 
people in the headquarters almost any time, men, women, 
strangers, reporters, all watching and seeking for news and 
to know what was to be done next." 

The result was that the rebels were kept fully informed 
of everv movement of the national forces. The quick per- 
ception of Stanton soon saw the folly of trying to conduct 
a great war and let everybody know how, when and where 
movements were to be made. 

Accordinglv, on the 26th day of February, 1862, vStanton 



12 

took possession of the Military Telegraph, making it a bureau 
of the War Department. This gave the vSecretary complete 
censorship over all telegrams. General McClellan stormed 
and raved at this exercise of power by the Secretary, but it 
availed him nothing. 

The wisdom and justice of this so-called tyranny of vStanton 
is now attested by a thousand concurrent facts of history. 
He guarded the secret orders. He kept safely these telegrams 
which to-day constitute the basis of the history of the rebellion. 

The organization of the Provost Marshal's ofBce on the same 
close lines was Stanton's next move. This bureau accom- 
plished a great service for the national cause. Thousands 
of obstructionists who were plotting treason in the north 
were arrested and held under military authority. Disloyal 
newspapers were suspended, editors imprisoned, and the 
power of the Government under the operation of military law 
accomplished what the civil authority had refused to do. 

These secret enemies of the Government in the north were 
a greater menace to the establishment of peace than the rebels 
in arms. This led to the President suspending the writ of 
habeas corpus. 

It is now well known that Mr. Stanton was the pioneer in 
securing legislation by which the property of rebels was to be 
confiscated. The restraining power of this action saved manv 
from helping the rebels. 

The charge of preventing the exchange of prisoners of war 
has been laid against Mr. vStanton, holding him responsible 
for the terrible suffering and loss of life. The whole con- 
troversy rested on the established fact that everv effort 
made by the Confederate War Office for the exchange of 
prisoners was to compel the United States Government to 
recognize the Confederacy as an independent State. 



13 

The following incidents will show how they tried to work 
the exchange as a means to recognition. 

General Wool concluded an agreement for the exchange 
of prisoners containing this paragraph: "Each j^arty to present 
their captives without expense on the 'frontier.'" Secretary 
Stanton rejected the proposed agreement saying: "To admit 
a 'frontier' is to admit a 'State' beyond the frontier." 

Another incident is cited to show that even in the effort 
to alleviate the suffering by distributing aid among suffering 
prisoners, the rebel Secretary of War inserted the following 
clause: "Each side to look after his own people in captivity." 

This Mr. Stanton rejected as recognizing a government with 
authoritv to send officers. He was not opposed to exchanging 
prisoners as an act of humanity, but he did not propose to 
allow the enmies of the Government to obtain an advantage 
through cruelty and suffering. 

Stanton would take no step which would place the revolting 
States on an equality with the Government, even as belligerents. 

The conspirators were for this reason trying to secure a writ- 
ten cartel of exchange that named in exact terms the Confederate 
States as a party. 

The following extract is from his answer to a resolution of 
Congress on March 24, 1862, "A late proposition for a new 
arrangement was promptly rejected because its terms involved 
a distinct recognition of the rebels as an independent belligerent 
power." Stanton never yielded on this point. When President 
Lincoln, on December 28, 1864, was granting E. P. Blair a pass 
to visit the Confederate capital, he consulted Stanton who said; 
"There are not two countries, Mr. President, and there never 
will be two countries. Tell Davis that, if you treat for peace, it 
will be for this one country. Negotiations on any other basis 
are impossible." j 

I Our war was the first in which militarv railwavs were of vital 



H 

importance; 2,105 miles in extent operated in twelve States 
Thcv gave emplo^-nlent at one time to 24,964 men. They built 
26 miles of bridges and laid 642 miles of new track. They ex- 
pended fortv-three million dollars in cash. 

The foundation for this marvelous accomplishment was laid 
on February 11, 1862, when Secretary Stanton organized the 
Bureau of Military Railroads, placing the whole management 
and control in a Military Director and vSuperintendent of 
Railroads. 

The arbitrary methods of this department are now silent 
witness of the wisdom which overcame many disasters incident 
of incapable railway management by military commanders. 

Stanton stopped not here, but when needed by the Govern- 
ment he peremptorilv ordered all manufactures to turn over to 
the Government all locomotives and cars completed. This was 
unsuccessfully resisted by the Vanderbilts and other great 
controlling interests, but the Government got the cars. This 
autocracv, of which thousands made complaint, stands in these 
later davs as a monument to Stanton's executive resources. 

The reputed conflicts, or rather the controversies which 
necessarilv occurred between the leading generals and Secretary 
Stanton, have clouded history and will for many years to come 
remain as faults or errors of his aggressive nature. 

General McClellan charges upon him in "My Story" the 
chief cause of his failure. Mr. Stanton never made an effort to 
answer him. One letter which he wrote May 18, 1862, is his 
onlv defense and was not given to the public until long after his 
death. The closing words of this letter will be of interest when 
and wherever the question of right as between these two dis- 
tinguished men may cause controversy. These are the words: 

"I believe that Cxod Almighty founded this Government, and 
for mv act in the effort to maintain it I expect to stand before 
Him in judgment. 



15 1 

"The official records will at the proper time fully prove— 
First. That I have employed the whole power of the Govern- 
ment unsparingly to support General McClellan's operations. 
Second. That I have not interfered with nor thwarted them in 
any particular." 

The writer would leav-e the question just where Mr. Stanton 
knew it was safe, namely, the considerate judgment of all 
mankind. 

His controversv with General vShcrman respecting the terms 
of surrender of the army of Gen. Joseph E. Johnson needs but 
little reasoning to see where the right and wrong really rested. 

On March 3, 1865, President Lincoln and his Cabinet were 
assembled in the President's room at the Capitol disposing of the 
last bills of the expiring Thirty-eighth Congress. While thus 
assembled General Grant telegraphed the possibility of Lee's 
surrender. The President, in his rejoicing, proposed to allow 
General Grant to extend almost any terms to the rebels. Secre- 
tary Stanton reminded the President that he was the head of 
the nation and Commander-in-Chief, saying: "If you are going 
to delegate vour authority to others I think you ought not to be 
inaugurated to-morrow, March 4, 1865; better not take the 
oath of office." The President's tone changed at once and he 
said, "I think the vSecretary is right." This produced the 
immortal message sent to General Grant forbidding him to 
decide, discuss or confer with the enemy on any political matter. 

The order of President Lincoln as revised by vSecretary Stan- 
ton, touching the surrender of General Lee's army, must reason- 
ably applv to the army of Johnson. General Sherman unques- 
tionably went beyond his rightful authority. No one contends 
to-day that General Sherman was right in allowing Johnson's 
armv to take their arms to their vState capitals: nor in the 
establishment of State government and State courts, political 
rights and franchises. He proposed that the Confederate State 



i6 

governments as they then existed were also to be recognized. 

Secretary Stanton saw the error in the agreement and, at a 
Cabinet meeting held at 8 o'clock P. M., April 21, i<S65, he 
changed the whole plan and General Grant was sent to take 
charge and extend to Johnson the same terms he had granted 
to Lee. 

It angered General Sherman, it embarrassed General Grant 
and made all rebeldom howl, but it was right then as it is right 
now. vStanton suffered much, but said nothing. Sherman and 
Stanton were reconciled, and both gloried in the victory won. 

The enemies of Stanton have tried to justify the fault-finding 
of General McClellan, by making General Grant also a com- 
plaining chief. But Cxcneral Grant, under oath before the 
Committee on the Conduct of the War, testified as follows 
concerning the conduct of Secretary Stanton: "He has never 
interfered with my duties; never thrown any obstacles in the 
way of any supplies I have called for; never dictated a course 
of campaign to me ; never inquired what I was going to do ; 
has always heartily co-operated with nie." 

Grant's memoirs (a part bf which Grant never saw), may 
contradict the foregoing, but Grant's statement under oath 
will stand. 

The peace cry of northern copperheads and southern sympa- 
thizers deceived many in 1864. But shams and pretenses 
were to Mr. Stanton transparent. He well knew that any man 
in any northern vState who was complaining of the despotism 
of Lincoln and Stanton could not honestly exchange conditions 
by accepting the Davis government, with rebel conscription 
which exempted only those in the cradle or the grave. 

Stanton's action towards these masked rebels, or infamous 
pretenders, was sharp and ceaseless. If the kind and generous 
Lincoln had not restrained him many would have paid the 
penalty their disloyalty deserved. 



17 

The hatred born of this campaign of infamy poured out its 
wrath upon this one man vStanton who was sacrificing every- 
thing for national honor and safety. 

In the northern States, during the whole war, the rights of 
property were respected. Mr. Stanton put in motion the 
mightiest movements for arming, ecjuipping, moving and 
feeding the army ever known in modern war, without mo- 
lesting the property of loyal people. 

The commercial and military moved harmoniouslv, without 
injury to private or public business. Nevertheless Stanton 
was maUgned as a pirate and robber by thousands who had 
nothing but praise for Jeff Davis's pillaging confederacy, which 
had existed from the beginning by exactions, which took without 
process of law all movable propertv within the reach of his 
armies. 

We who now li\'e and look back at this monster rebellion only 
realize or comprehend in part the exactions and duties laid 
upon this uncomplaining servant of the nation. 

Eight million square miles covered by hostile and contending 
armies ; three thousand miles of border to defend ; two thousand 
regiments of two million men ; orders, arrests, trials, commit- 
ments, pardons, and thousands of demands, while one thousand 
eight hundred battles were being fought ; the dead on the 
battlefield ; the wounded and sick in hospitals ; the captive in 
prison were in his thoughts, and with the victorious marching 
legions Stanton kept close to all from general to drummer-boy. 
He neither slept nor slumbered where duty was undone. 

He wrote his epitaph unconsciously the dav he entered 
Buchanan's Cabinet in these words: "In hope of doing some- 
thing to save this Government, I am willing to perish, if thereby 
the Union may be saved." 

That he was reasonable and fair when others considered him 
unjust and cruel, the following, touching General Fremont, is 



i8 

characteristic of Stanton's methods of dealing with complaining 
generals : " If General Fremont has any fight in him he shall (so 
far as I am concerned) have a chance to show it, and I have told 
him so. The times require the help of every man according to 
his gifts ; and having neither partialities nor grudges to indulge, 
it will be my aim to practice on the maxim, 'The tools to him 
that can handle them.' " 

The criticism and harsh denunciation which have been uttered 
against this devoted patriot during the past forty years can 
easily be traced to those whose sympathies were with the South, 
or of that other class whose unlawful acts of selfish plans were 
hindered or overthrown by him. 

His austeritv was forced by overwhelming duty. His time 
was all demanded by the War Office. Friends and friendship 
had no claims while duty was claiming his time. He measured 
moments, and calculated time. The great reverses our armies 
suffered caused him untold anguish but he never wavered 
or faltered. The tragic death of President Lincoln was the 
greatest and most fatal of all his disappointments. The future, 
which held for him great promise, the plans of years, were swept 
away in a moment. His future was ever afterwards clouded 
and his plans uncertain. vStanton was misunderstood because 
he was all storm, all push; he wanted fighting everywhere, by 
everybodv, night and day. Such men in creating victory create 
enemies. To those seeking special privileges, or those asking 
for favors, together with those who were seeking to change 
the war policv he mav have appeared arbitrary or cruel, but he 
knew too well the irresistible demand of war, so with one 
stroke of the pen or a spoken word he swept off their feet and 
out of sight all suppHants and meddlers. 

That he was unselfish, let me quote his own words on the 
receipt of the news of the fall of Richmond — "Friends and 
fellow-citizens: In this great hour of triumph, my heart as well 



19 

as yours swells with gratitude to Almighty God for His deliver- 
ance of this nation. Our thanks are due to our President, to 
the Army, to the Navy, to our great commanders on land and 
sea, to the gallant officers and men who imperilled their Uves 
upon the field of battle and drenched the soil with their blood. 
Henceforth our commiseration and our active aid should be 
extended to the wounded and maimed, and the suffering who 
bear the many marks of their sacrifices in this mighty struggle. 
"Let us humbly offer our thanks to Divine Providence for 
His care over us and beseech Him to guide and govern us in our 
duties hereafter, as He has carried us to victory in the past : To 
teach us how to be humble in the midst of triumph ; how to be 
just in the hour of victory ; and how to so secure the foundations 
of this republic, soaked as they are in blood, that they shall last 
forever." 

Stanton was great as a man. His love of children was 
supreme — one of the marks of, and proof of greatness. Stern 
and austere as duty made him, yet tenderness was a passion of 
his nature which burst like a fountain out of the fulness of an 
overflowing soul. And yet men say he was cruel and brutal. 

The following incident tells more of the soul qualities of the 
man than an army of witnesses. 

One night, at lo o'clock, a prominent official entered the 
Department. There he found vSecretary Stanton, standing with 
two women and three children upon their knees before him. 
The mother and the wife were pleading for the life of their 
loved one, who was condemned to be shot as a deserter. The 
sobs and pravers of these pleading suppHants moved the only 
beholder into violent emotion. Mr. Stanton listened in silence, 
apparentlv unmoved. Then he answered, "The man must die." 
The crushed and heart-broken little family left the room. 
Mr. Stanton turned, apparently unmoved, and walked into his 
private room. The relator of the incident says, "My own heart 



20 

was wrung with anguish. It seemed to me that Mr. Stanton 
must be a demon, the very incarnation of cruelty and tyranny. 
I was so dazed that, forgetting myself, I followed Mr. Stanton 
into his office without rapping. I found him leaning over his 
desk, his face buried in his hands and his heavv frame shaking 
with sobs. 'God help me to do my duty,' he repeated, in a low 
wail of anguish. This scene I shall never forget. I quicklv 
and without noise withdrew, but not until I had seen a great 
light. 

I understood Mr. Stanton then as never before. His great 
heart, perhaps, was suffering more intense agony than the 
hearts of the humble woman and children. My love for Mr. 
Stanton now became a passion, for his great heart was known 
to me." 

There is no finer picture of greatness in all the literature of 
the world. We see the tender heart, steeled for the bloodv 
duties of war. 

Was vStanton right? What would each of us do under such 
an appeal? 

Let me answer — war changes everything; it is despotic. 

General Sherman said, "War is hell." 

No other man had ever been called to the severe test as was 
vStanton. Thousands were deserting from the ranks. The 
morale of the whole armv was threatened. Nothing but the 
hard fate of war's penalty, D^ath, would cure the cause. 
Stanton knew the need of discipHne, as the hope of the army. 
And on the army rested the fate of the Union. 

Touching the great burden imposed by all the thousands of 
appeals, he said, "If the pyramids were upon my heart, the load 
would be light compared with what I have to bear." 

But his great soul never faltered. He suffered. He agonized 
in tears. He prayed. He triimiphed. The morning of his 
immortality in nation saving will some dav break around the 



21 



world. His example and wisdom will instruct the leaders of 
armies and peoples. His self -denying patriotism will inspire 
millions of freemen to do heroic deeds, in upholding liberty 
against the assault of tyrants. 

Edwin M. Staunton, like the hero in all ages, was truly a 
martyr. The time of his coronation is far distant ; out of the 
gloom and shadows of a mighty past his name, Uke that of other 
great benefactors, once lost and forgotten, will reappear. Such 
lives come back to the world to inspire, and teach, and bless 
those who sit in darkness. 

Savonarola, who, for the right, died at a martyr's stake in 
beautiful Florence, Uves again and speaks to all the world, by 
his gifts to liberty. 

Columbus, with fettered limbs, was scorned by envious souls 
who without cause forced him behind prison doors. CiviUza- 
tion, springing up in his pathway, has broken off his chains and 
fetters. In the twentieth century he walks the deck of the 
grandest ship in the Ocean of Memory. Four hundred years of 
progress condemns his forgotten accusers, while from the wrongs 
and the injustice he was made to suffer mankind has rescued his 
name and lifted it up to the passing beholder, where a world's 
homage is centered. 

In some far-off day when the southern confederacy and the 
men who attempted to give it a place among nations have been 
forgotten the benefactors of a great service of great sacrifice 
will come. Then, out of the Crypt of Ingratitude, out of the 
grave of Neglect, out of the mighty throbbing pulse of a grand, 
great and prosperous civilization, these benefactors of a sacri- 
ficed Ufe will restore a name almost forgotten and inscribed 
among the immortals, on tablets molded out of the dust and 
ashes of heroes and martyrs, the name 

EDWIN MACMASTERS STANTON. 



